Taliban attack kills scores at Pakistan school

At least 141 people, 132 of them children, were killed in an unprecedented attack by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) on Tuesday. The assault on the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar was a reprisal for the Pakistani government's offensive against militant strongholds in North Waziristan, which, according to military statements, has left more than 1,600 Taliban fighters and family members dead.

"We are doing this because we want them to feel the pain of how terrible it is when your loved ones are killed," TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani said.

"I saw death"

Six gunmen wearing government uniforms entered the school, one of 146 across the country run by the army for the children of military personnel. Many of the teachers are the wives of soldiers.

The gunmen went from room to room shooting children, some as young as 12, and staff. The Pakistani military was able to contain the attack about eight hours after it began, with all six militants dead. Chief army spokesman General Asim Bajwa said the operation was "closing up" but that the attackers had left behind explosive devices which needed to be removed.

A 16-year-old survivor told AFP news agency that he survived by playing dead, despite being shot in both legs. "My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget those black boots approaching me," student Shahrukh Khan said from the trauma ward of Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar.

World leaders react

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the attack a "national tragedy unleashed by savages."

"These were my children. This is my loss. This is the nation's loss, " he added.

Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was shot herself by the Taliban for speaking out about conditions under their rule, said she was "heartbroken" by "the senseless and cold-blooded" massacre.

The leaders of Pakistan's neighbors, Afghanistan and India, voiced their solidarity with Pakistan on Tuesday at the time of national tragedy. Although Pakistan and India have a very tenuous relationship, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to denounce the violence.

Western leaders also rallied around Pakistan, with French President Francois Hollande and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemning the "cowardice" of attacking innocent children. Barack Obama gave a statement affirming that "we stand with the people of Pakistan."

Tuesday's attack was the second deadliest in the nation's history, after a bombing in Karachi in 2007 targeting former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

es/ksb (AP, AFP, dpa)